Tuatara Conservation status: Vulnerable
Male tuatara
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia   Phylum: Chordata   Class: Sauropsida   Order: Sphenodontia   Family: Sphenodontidae   Genus: Sphenodon Gray, 1831
Species
Sphenodon punctatus (Gray, 1842) Sphenodon guntheri Buller, 1877 Sphenodon diversum (extinct)

The tuatara is a reptile of the family Sphenodontidae, endemic to New Zealand. The two species are the only surviving members of the Sphenodontians. The tuataras resemble lizards, but are equally related to lizards and snakes, which are their closest living relatives. For this reason, they are of great interest in the study of the evolution of lizards and snakes, and for the reconstruction of the appearance and habits of the earliest diapsids (the group that additionally includes birds and crocodiles).

The tuatara has been classified as an endangered species since 1895. Tuataras, like many of New Zealand's native animals, are threatened by habitat loss and introduced species, such as mustelids and rats. They were extinct on the mainland, with the remaining populations confined to 32 offshore islands,[1] until the first mainland release into the heavily fenced and monitored Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in 2005.

References

Cited references

1. New Zealand Department of Conservation - Tuatara page
2. Cree, Alison. 2002. Tuatara. In: Halliday, Tim and Adler, Kraig (eds.), The new encyclopedia of reptiles and amphibians, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 210-211. ISBN 0-19-852507-9
3. Fraser, Nicholas; Sues, Hans-Dieter; (eds) (1994). "Phylogeny" In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs: Early Mesozoic Tetrapods. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-45242-2.
4. Lepidosauromorpha
5. Fact Sheet on BBC website
6. New Zealand Ecology--Living Fossils
7. Wu, Xiao-Chun (1994). "Late Triassic-Early Jurassic sphenodontians from China and the phylogeny of the Sphenodontia" in Nicholas Fraser & Hans-Dieter Sues (eds) In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs: Early Mesozoic Tetrapods. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-45242-2.
8. Tuatara on Kiwi Conservation Club
9. Kaplan, Melissa (2003-09-06). Reptile Hearing. Melissa Kaplan's Herp Care Collection
10. Animal Diversity Web: Tuatara - Habitat
11. Thompson MB and Daugherty CH (1998). "Metabolism of tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus". Comparative biochemistry and physiology A 119: 519-522.
12. Cree et al (1992). "Reproductive cycles of male and female tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) on Stephens Island, New Zealand". Journal of Zoology 226: 199-217.
13. C. Gand, J.C. Gillingham and D.L. Clark (1984). "Courtship, mating and male combat in Tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus". Journal of Herpetology 18(2): 194-197.
14. Tuatara Sex Debate
15. http://www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz/doclibrary/public/wai262/matauranga_maori/Chapt06.pdf
16. Five Cents for the Tuatara

General references

• McKintyre, Mary (1997). Conservation of the Tuatara. Victoria University Press. ISBN 0-86473-303-8.
• Parkinson, Brian (2000). The Tuatara. Reed Children’s Books. ISBN 1-86948-831-8.
• Lutz, Dick (2005). Tuatara: A Living Fossil. DIMI PRESS. ISBN 0-931625-43-2.

Links

• Animal Diversity Web
• Quickfire Facts - New Zealand Native Animals - Tuatara
• The Reptipage: Rhynchocephalia/Sphenodontia
• Tuatara Fact Sheet on Australasian Regional Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria
• Evolution of a third eye in some animals? MadSci Network
• Digimorph - Sphenodon punctatus (tuatara) - 3D visualisations from X-ray CT scans
• The Lonely Eye

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.